In this post, we discuss 3 lesser known very important questions, to ask yourself when choosing between an iPad Air and an iPad Pro, plus BONUS content for you at the end – we have crafted a very helpful decision tree that can assist you and others decide which of the two devices is right for you.
Today in 2025 choosing between the iPad Air and iPad Pro is more tricky than you may realize, both these products are now more similar than ever before. You may be thinking, well the iPad Pro seems like the best choice because its the top of the range iPad, and Yes you would be right, if money is no object or, if you know for sure that it’s the right device for your needs. However if you want some extra help in deciding, were are here to help.
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1.) How much RAM do I need?
If you are looking for superb performance or if you just want to future proof your device, you don’t have to go straight to the iPad Pro. The iPad Air today is an immensely powerful device. People forget it was the original iPad Air released in November 2013, that used to be Apple’s Flagship iPad. The iPad Air has always been marketed as a budget friendly, performance orientated iPad and that still holds true today.
The latest generation iPad Air is in its 7th iteration and to give you a tangible comparison of its performance, – the Air offers similar performance to a 2023 MacBook Pro 14”, and boasts a higher single core performance score than a 2023 Mac Studio with M2 Max chip! – I am not kidding! See the screenshot below 👇.
This performance is a result of Apple’s blazing fast M3 chip architecture. The M3 Chip is built on the same 3 nanometer process as the M4 Chip found in the iPad Pro. Featuring an 8-core CPU and 9-core GPU. So it’s not surprising the performance difference between the Air and Pro is only about 15-20%.
At this point you may be think to yourself, “do I really need the extra performance the iPad Pro offers?” And you would be right to think that, but the real question is actually, how much RAM do I need?
RAM vs Reality.
There is a difference in RAM between the Pro and the Air. The iPad Air M3 supports 8G of RAM whereas the iPad Pro can be specked with up to 16G of RAM if you choose the 1T or 2T storage model. This becomes an important consideration if you are doing;
Particularly Heavy Multi-Tasking – (multiple resource intensive apps open at once on one or more screen with Stage Manager i.e Web Browser with many active tabs, multiple large spreadsheets, large presentations, etc. )
Content Creation and Media Production ( Video, Podcasting, Music Production, 3D Modeling & Animation, Graphic Design, i.e jumping between Multiple pro Apps open at once.)
Resource intensive Gaming – Games like Death Stranding, Resident Evil Village, Assassin’s Creed and considering more AAA ports are coming the iPad, all use a lot of RAM, for example the newly released Hitman World of Assassination.
Don’t be put off by the Air’s ram, the device will have no problem dipping into any of these tasks above 👆. That is in part due to Apple’s very clever “Virtual Memory” otherwise known as Memory Swop. This is where the operating system free’s up used ram (i.e an inactive minimized app), by moving it from fast memory (RAM) to the devices solid state storage (SSD), which is slower. In doing this more RAM is available for the system, preventing crashing or slowing down of Apps, the System or (UI) User Interface. This technique is only possible due to Apple’s SUPER fast SSD’s. If you notice your device is often running slow when you have a lot of apps open, then it may be that your device is having to perform this process constantly. Ultimately to solve this you will need more RAM. If you foresee yourself doing allot of these tasks you will appreciate the extra ram and horse power of the 1T & 2T iPad Pro’s.
